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Miami Region January Home Sales January 27, 2014 Miami-area home sales dipped year-over-year last month but were still the second-highest for a January in seven years thanks to relatively strong condo resales, robust investor purchases and gains in mid- to high-end activity. The median sale price fell month-to-month, which is normal for the season, and while the median remained higher than a year earlier the rate of increase declined again, a real estate information service reported. In January, 8,983 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow in the metro area encompassing Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Broward counties. January sales fell 16.2 percent from the prior month and fell 5.4 percent from a year earlier, according to San Diego-based DataQuick. The firm tracks real estate trends nationally via public property records. A sharp drop in sales between December and January is normal for the season. On average, sales between those two months have fallen 17.8 percent since 1997, when DataQuick's complete Miami-area statistics begin. Last month marked the first time Miami-area sales have fallen on a year-over-year basis since April 2012, when they dipped 0.2 percent. Last month's sales were 2.3 percent below the average number of sales for the month of January since 1997. January's condo resales were 36.0 percent above average for the month, while single-family detached house resales were 0.8 percent below the long-term January average and new-home sales were 74.3 percent below average. The 4,318 existing (not new) condos sold in January marked the second-highest level for that month - behind last year - since January 2005, when 4,675 sold. Condo resales made up 48.1 percent of total sales last month, compared with an historical monthly average of 35.5 percent. When viewed by price segment, Miami-area January home sales dropped 25.4 percent year-over-year for homes priced below $100,000 and fell 14.0 percent for homes priced below $200,000. But sales of...

The two-and-a-half-year-old Consumer Financial Protection Bureau may finally have a confirmed director, but that doesn't mean Republicans are done throwing rocks at it. The House debated (and is expected to pass) a package of bills this afternoon that would replace the bureau's single director with a five-person commission, prevent it from collecting consumer credit card information, and make it easier for the Treasury's Financial Stability Oversight Council to overrule CFPB regulations. House Republicans have been trying to pass many of these things for years, which hobbled the fledgling agency's effectiveness by making it play defense even though they never became law. Read full article &#62;&#62; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;

Kim Phan On February 25, the Financial Literacy and Education Commission (FLEC) held a field hearing as part of America Saves Week to discuss financial education in the workplace, including how to deliver financial education to employees. During the field hearing, CFPB Director Richard Cordray, who also serves as the FLEC vice chair, delivered remarks encouraging employers... More &#62;

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) delivered the following floor remarks on H.R. 3193, the Consumer Financial Freedom and Washington Accountability Act: Mr. Chairman, we are now into the sixth year of the Obama administration and probably the two most common comments I hear from my constituents are "I just can't make ends meet in this economy" and "Washington has become arrogant, unaccountable, and out of touch." And at the apex of these sentiments lies the newly minted, Dodd-Frank government agency known as the CFPB. And although many have yet to hear of it, the CFPB is perhaps the single most powerful and least accountable Federal agency in all of Washington. First, let's speak of its power. Mr. Chairman, when it comes our credit cards, our auto loans, our mortgages, the CFPB has unbridled, discretionary power not only to make them less available and more expensive, but to absolutely take them away. What does an agency with this kind of power do? It imposes rules like the Qualified Mortgage rule, or QM for short. Mr. Chairman, what does QM do? According to Federal Reserve data, because of QM "roughly one-third of black and Hispanic borrowers would not meet the requirements of a QM loan." Mr. Chairman, one-third. Core Logic, which analyzes mortgage data has said "only half of today's mortgage originations meet QM requirements." That is egregiously unfair to hardworking Americans. One of my small town community bankers in East Texas told me recently because of QM "I can't tell you the number of times we have had to tell our good low-to-moderate income customers that we can no longer loan them money to purchase a home to live in." So Mr. Chairman, this is what an agency with too much discretionary power does. It can actually abuse consumers, taking away their homeownership opportunities. That's unfair. And let's look at what happens to an agency that is not held accountable...

One of the mysteries of the housing boom and bust is how speculation in Las Vegas and Phoenix, with their wide open spaces, got so heated. With so much land on supply, you'd think it would be hard for a bubble to get started.

The main takeaway from Fed Chairwoman Yellen's testimony before the Senate Banking Committee was that central bank policy is on cruise control until officials get a better read on the economy's performance. Here are five other takeaways that don't involve the weather:

Elliot Anenberg and Steven Laufer. We construct a new "list-price index" that accurately reveals trends in house prices several months before existing sales price indices like Case-Shiller. Our index is based on the repeat-sales approach but for recent months uses listings data, which are available essentially in real time, instead of transactions data, which become available with signiffcant lags. Our index methodology is motivated by a simple model of the home-selling problem that shows how listings variables such as the list price and marketing time help predict the final sales price. In a sample of three large MSAs over the years 2008-2012, our index (i) accurately forecasts the Case-Shiller index several months in advance, (ii) outperforms forecasting models that do not use listings data, and (iii) outperforms the market's expectation as inferred from prices on Case-Shiller future contracts.

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- The Treasury Department sold $29 billion in 7-year notes Thursday at a yield of 2.105%. Bidders offered to buy 2.72 times the amount of debt sold, compared to an average of 2.50 times at the last six sales. Indirect bidders, a group that includes foreign central banks, bought 41.1%, matching the average in recent sales. Direct bidders, which include domestic money managers, purchased another 24.6%, versus an average of 19.5%. The broader bond market remained higher after the auction. Yields on 10-year notes , which move inversely to prices, fell 2.5 basis points on the day to 2.648%.

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen veered off script Thursday morning during her remarks before the Senate Banking Committee and that impromptu remark was the most important thing she said in eight hours (and counting!) of congressional testimony this month. Read full article &#62;&#62; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;

News from NHC's family of members&nbsp; by Radiah Shabazz, National Housing Conference &nbsp; Energy efficient housing is the trend right now, and NHC members Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee (Housing Authority) and National Housing &amp; Rehabilitation Association (NH&amp;RA) are keeping up with the times. Recently, Westlawn Gardens and Olga Village, developments owned by Housing Authority, earned international recognition for energy efficiency and NH&amp;RA is set to host its first Road Show event, "Preservation Through Energy Efficiency," in Philadelphia on April 3. The event will serve as the kickoff for NH&amp;RA's national educational program to provide resources, technical assistance and training to multifamily affordable rental units. The initiative's goal is to improve the utility performance of multifamily rental developments. Road Show participants will receive access to the program's Knowledge Exchange, an online collaborative workspace for networking, research and resources. It was made possible with support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. On the development side of energy efficiency, Westlawn Gardens was awarded Stage 3 Silver Certification in Leadership in Energy &amp; Environmental Design for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND), becoming the first development in the world to achieve Stage 3 Silver status and the highest rated neighborhood among LEED standards.&nbsp; Olga Village also earned silver certification and received the New Construction Award from State &amp; Local Energy Report, as an " outstanding public energy efficiency project." "It is a significant honor to receive these recognitions," Tony Perez , secretary and executive director at the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee, said in a press release.&nbsp; "We have prioritized energy-efficiency innovation and incorporated leading-edge design in our projects, which...

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke is slated on Thursday to provide a long-awaited deposition in a landmark class-action lawsuit over the government's bailout of insurance giant AIG. His sworn testimony comes after a long legal battle in which the government sought to shield Bernanke from providing a statement. Last summer, U.S. Federal Claims Court Judge Thomas Wheeler ruled that Bernanke's "personal involvement" in AIG's $85 billion bailout makes him a key witness. But an appeals court acknowledged that deposing Bernanke while he was in office could cause "significant" disruption. Read full article &#62;&#62; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;

Please check back for further updates.. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's opening remarks on the U.S. economy as prepared for delivery to the Senate Banking Committee were almost identical to the prepared testimony she delivered to a House of Representatives panel earlier this month.

These statistics provide vacancy rates, homeownership rates and characteristics of units available for occupancy for the U.S., regions, states and the 75 largest metropolitan statistical areas. Data for all geographies are available both quarterly and annually. Homeownership rates are also tabulated by age of householder for the U.S. and regions ...

RealtyTrac® released its January 2014 Residential &#38; Foreclosure Sales Report on Febraury 27th, showing that institutional investors - defined as entities purchasing at least 10 properties in a calendar year - accounted for 5.2 percent of all U.S. residential property sales in January, down from 7.9 percent in December and down from 8.2 percent in [&#8230;]

There's a new trend among 2014 homebuyers: the decision NOT to sell their current homes when they move. Read&#160;More The post 39% of Buyers Prefer to Rent Out Their Last Home Rather Than Sell appeared first on Redfin Real Estate Blog .

Ocwen Financial Corp. said its fourth-quarter earnings jumped 60%, after the New York Department of Finance said it is examining the mortgage-servicing company over concerns that it is growing too quickly.

Freddie Mac to Pay Treasury $10.4 Billion on Quarterly Profit Bloomberg Freddie Mac, the U.S.-owned mortgage financier, will return $10.4 billion to the Treasury Department next month, bringing total payments to about $10 billion above what it got in aid after the credit crisis. The McLean, Virginia-based company had net income&nbsp; ... and more&nbsp;&raquo;

Should Fannie and Freddie Fund Housing for the Poor? Bloomberg Developer Nora Lichtash wants to turn a weed-covered lot in Philadelphia&#39;s working-class Port Richmond neighborhood into a block of rental homes affordable to families making less than $20,000 a year. After three years of cobbling together loans and&nbsp; ... and more&nbsp;&raquo;

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